(dramatic instrumental music) - In the already sprawling landscape of Springdale Cemetery, there lies a place on the outskirts.

The only way to get to it is on foot.

It's so far back and surrounded by this prairie land, that from anywhere else in the cemetery, you wouldn't know it's there.

The locals call it the "Witches Circle".

The circle is for one family, the Cole family, probably a name very familiar in the Peoria area.

The locals have said that they've seen seances, practices of witchcraft, shadows that move, cold spots, and there's always this eerie sense that you're being watched.

To this day, people say that they see the wax of candles from rituals located on headstones, and at the center we have what the locals call the "Devil's Tree", a sassafras with trident leaves growing directly out of the body of Almiran Cole.

With a landscape unlike any other portion of the cemetery, this prairie grass is said to be thousands and thousands of years old and gives the perfect cover for the Witches Circle, a place that's rumored to be a meeting spot for hooded figures, for seances and rituals, a spot not unlike a place like Stonehenge, a point of power on the ley lines.

Inside of it, you can feel sort of a presence that is otherworldly.

Weeding through rumor and folklore and factual accounts, you can believe what you want, decide for yourself.

However, being out here, you can definitely feel a certain presence, be it a lovely atmosphere, a thinning between the worlds, or maybe that truly esoteric sense of power that some people claim this place has.

(birds chirping) - So we have a lot of different types of records.

This is a Lot book.

And inside we have, it's essentially like kind of a pictogram map of the different sections of the cemetery.

(gentle guitar music) So I have the Cole family.

They are in Lot 720, and you can see the 60-foot circle.

(mellow instrumental music) Springdale Cemetery was founded in 1854, and like many cemeteries of that era, this was a place that was not just a cemetery, it was used as a public park.

It was originally about two miles outside of downtown Peoria, and people would come here on a Sunday for a stroll, for a picnic.

It is a place to learn about Peoria history, about the people who formed this city and made it great.

It's a place to learn about nature, the rare ecological Springdale, Savannah.

Obviously, the Cole Circle or the Witches Circle, whatever you call it, has captured a lot of people's imaginations.

People come here specifically to visit this site, and they're known to leave small tokens like little stones.

I've seen people leave notes, and that's certainly okay.

We definitely advocate for people being respectful and, you know, keeping into consideration that this is someone's final resting place, so we want to treat it with respect and dignity.

At the top of this monument, we have an upside down torch, which symbolizes a life extinguished.

We're standing here at the grave of Captain Almiran S. Cole, who is certainly one of the most prominent of Peoria's early settlers.

In 1844, he's credited with opening Peoria's first distillery.

He ended up building a four-story distillery downtown that was, at the time, one of the largest buildings in the Mississippi Valley.

Many people don't know that this grave here for his infant children was actually moved here in the late 1800s when he purchased this plot.

They were originally laid to rest in the Masonic Cemetery downtown.

Captain Cole is here with his wife.

You'll notice his headstone and his footstone, and it's hard to miss this very impressive sassafras tree, which I've talked to a number of arborists who claim that this is one of the largest sassafras trees they have ever seen.

And I think the circular fashion of this grave, the size of this tree and the placement of it, the location of the family grave in the middle of the savanna all have led to decades of people coming up with stories about hauntings and supernatural events happening here.

(birds chirping) (gentle guitar music) So as we share these urban legends and myths, it's important to keep in mind that these were real people with real stories, and it is part of our duty to pay reverence to their memories by doing the research when we're able to look at what facts are known.

That's where you go to the library.

That's where you look online and see what facts you can find out.

You know, as we share these myths and urban legends, we have to also remember that these were real living people, and it is our duty to preserve their memory.

(gentle guitar music continues)